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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27748717">Yes is Being My Answer</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sovvannight/pseuds/sovvannight'>sovvannight</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Trouble With Love Is [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Arrow (TV 2012)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Christmas, Cook-slash-Handyman, F/M, IT girl, Inspired by Love Actually, POV Felicity Smoak, Russian!Oliver, Small Towns, brief Cooper/Felicity, disturbingly Hallmark-movie esque</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 20:26:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>19,437</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27748717</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sovvannight/pseuds/sovvannight</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>On a Tuesday in November, federal agents raid the company where Felicity works, arresting the CEO and several other executives.  Now out of a job, at least temporarily, she arrives home early to find her boyfriend Cooper with a cute brunette.  She immediately packs up a minimal amount of possessions and leaves, and eventually negotiates an off-season cabin rental a few hours' drive down the coast where she plans on splitting her time between job-hunting and developing her security program.  There she meets Oliver, the owner’s nephew who has just arrived from Russia.  They form a connection despite the language barrier, but with Felicity’s life in flux and Oliver only being a visitor to the US, do they have a chance at anything more?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Trouble With Love Is [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1563523</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>189</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>My Olicity take on Jamie and Aurelia's storyline, which is actually my least favorite part of this movie, but I've put my own spin on things and I think the result is adorable.  Updates Wednesdays and Saturdays.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Felicity was tucked away in a server room, taking advantage of the lack of interruptions and a relatively clear workstation in one corner of the room to replace a laptop screen shattered by a careless Stellmore executive.  With music blasting through her earbuds to drown out the noisy hum of the servers, she was oblivious to the world and let out an embarrassingly loud squeak when her boss tapped her on the shoulder. </p><p>Turning around, she saw a crowd of imposing-looking people behind him.  When she looked closer, she saw that the men closest to her wore uniformly plain black or navy suits with white shirts, but at the back… “Does that say FBI?”  She stood on tiptoe to try and see better.</p><p>“Well, yes, it does.  It seems that some of our executives have been a bit, uh, incautious.  These agents need complete access to all of our systems.  And you’ll need to turn in your laptop and company phone, and any other company equipment before you leave.”  He started backing out through the crowd.  “Gentlemen, I’m going to leave you in Felicity’s capable hands.  She’s our star IT support specialist, and I’m sure she can get you whatever you need.”</p><p>“Um, but—” she started to ask for clarification, but he was already out the door.  “Like a rat fleeing a sinking ship,” she muttered, and the agent nearest her cracked a smile for a second.  “So, uh, hi, I’m Felicity.  Smoak.  Um, I’m not going to be arrested, right?”</p><p>An agent toward the middle of the group pushed forward.  “Of course not.  At least not unless you’ve been engaging in insider trading, money laundering, or selling banned technology to foreign powers.”  He gave her a good ‘ol boy grin, and she couldn’t help smiling back.  </p><p>“Well, no, no, none of that.  I’m innocent.”</p><p>“Excellent.  Felicity, I’m Agent Babin, by the way.  My team has a warrant to seize all electronic equipment at this location.”</p><p>She blinked.  “All of it?  But then how are we supposed to… Oh.  We’re shutting down, aren’t we?”</p><p>“At least for the moment.  Until the government unfreezes your accounts and your Board establishes a new management team.  For now, can you show us around and get us the logins we need?”  </p><p>Two hours later, she’d created logins for them all and walked them through the file structure and company databases.  One of the agents—the one who’d smiled at her joke about her boss—escorted her to her cubicle to take her own company equipment into evidence.  She handed him her laptop, tablet, and phone.  “These are mine, and then I do have some incomplete repair jobs.”  </p><p>He put all of her equipment into an oversized padded envelope, which he labeled with her name.  He then bagged the three laptops, four phones, and two tablets sitting in the bottom drawer of her filing cabinet.  “That’s it, Felicity.  Let me go ahead and walk you out.”  As they rode the elevator down and then walked out to the lobby, he said, “I want to thank you for your cooperation, Miss Smoak.  We’ll try to get your files back to you before Christmas.”</p><p>“Well, I’m Jewish.  But thanks.  No paycheck this time of year will be hard for us all.”  She waved to the security guard, huddled with a few agents.  “Hey, Jim.”</p><p>“Hey, Felicity.  You’re just about the last one out.  The building should be empty now, except for you all and Stellmore’s legal team,” he said to the agents.</p><p>She shook her head at that—of course she was stuck there when it probably should’ve been her boss handling the investigation.  She checked her phone—her personal one, since her work phone was gone—and it was way past lunchtime, but her stomach was churning with nerves from dealing with people who might very well have arrested her if they knew about her hacking exploits in college.</p><p>As she waited to cross the street to head toward her car, parked two blocks south at a cheaper parking garage than her own or the neighboring buildings, she muttered, “This calls for mint chip.  And wine.”</p><p>“You’re telling me, honey,” the woman standing next to her said, and they exchanged smiles.</p><p>And that was exactly what Felicity did, stopping for ice cream and a bottle of wine on the way home to the apartment she shared with her boyfriend, Cooper.</p><p>She nabbed an on-street space near her building—coming home in the middle of the afternoon had a little bit of an upside to it, although she was dreading the conversation she’d need to have with Cooper.  She worried about it all the way through the building, on the elevator up to the eighth floor, and down the hall to their apartment.</p><p>Felicity transferred the grocery bag holding her ice cream to her left hand so that she could unlock the door to her and Cooper’s apartment.  She called out, “Hey Cooper, I know I’m home early, but I need to talk to you!”  She dumped her purse on one of the hooks by the door and then shrugged out of her coat, hanging it next to her boyfriend’s jacket. </p><p>She looked around the living area as she walked into the kitchen to stow the ice cream in the freezer and leave the wine on the counter—she wanted to wait until they were discussing what had happened to her today, and what it would mean for their future.  But Cooper wasn’t seated at the kitchen table where he was usually working on his app when she got home; there was just his laptop, closed on the table. </p><p>Of course, she was three hours early, or honestly more like five based on her recent workload.  Did he typically take a nap in the afternoons, and she just never realized?  Or maybe he was cleaning, or doing laundry?  She snorted at herself—that wasn’t likely. </p><p>She stepped out of her shoes and started up the stairs to the second floor of their apartment, stepping deliberately to be as quiet as possible, just in case he was napping and she hadn’t already woken him up. </p><p>Midway up the stairs, he stepped out of their bedroom and shut the door behind him, lounging against the door in unbuttoned jeans and nothing else, hair mussed as if he’d been in bed.  “You’re home early,” he said as he pushed off and started down the stairs to meet her.  “They finally letting you have some comp time to make up for all the nights and weekends you’ve worked lately?”</p><p>“Not exactly.”  She laughed, a little nervously, and allowed herself to be led back down to the main level.  “We need to talk.  I got ice cream—mint chip for me, rocky road for you.  And wine.  I shouldn’t have, but I <em>so</em> need wine right now.”</p><p>“If you’re in the mood to celebrate, maybe we should go out, have an early dinner.”</p><p>“It’s 3 o'clock,” she pointed out.</p><p>“Late lunch, then.  Let me throw a shirt on and we can go.”  He left her standing at the foot of the steps as he turned down the hall and stepped into the laundry room before she could say anything.</p><p>“Cooper, I really don’t want to go out.  We need to talk.”</p><p>He walked by her and grabbed his coat.  “We can talk at the restaurant. C’mon, babe.”</p><p>“I lost my job,” she blurted out.  He stopped froze while putting one arm into his coat sleeve as she continued, speaking rapidly, “Well, not just me, the whole company—officials from the FBI and the SEC showed up and hauled away our CEO and a half dozen other people in handcuffs. I had to spend a couple of hours giving their techs access to everything—I was one of the last people out of the building. They said Stellmore would be closed for the foreseeable future until they could address the charges and get clearance to open up again.” </p><p>Cooper frowned, but then a smile broke over his face. “But this is great, actually.  You can help me with <em>Knights of Guilfoyle</em>—I’m having trouble with some of the loops not following the logic I’m trying to set up.”  She must’ve looked unenthused, because he added, “And you can work on your little security program. You haven’t had much of a chance to work on it lately with all of the system maintenance you’ve been doing on the weekends.  This is a blessing in disguise!  And we’ll get to spend more time together.  You’re getting paid while you’re furloughed, right?”</p><p>“I don’t know.  How can they when they don’t even have access to the accounting system?  I think we might be on our own.  We should both probably start looking for something.”</p><p>His shoulders drooped as he looked at her pleadingly.  “But babe, I’m so close.  <em>Guilfoyle</em> will make us rich if I can just have a little more time to focus on it.”</p><p>“It’s been two and a half years since graduation, and you started working on it while we were still in school!  How much longer is it going to take?  No, you know what?  It doesn’t matter—you need to put that on hold like I’ve put <em>Project Overwatch</em> on hold until we have our expenses covered.”</p><p>Cooper opened his mouth to protest but shut it again with a pained look when footsteps sounded on the stairs.  Felicity watched the person appear as she descended the stairs:  ankle-strap heels, long, bare legs, short sweater dress as a nod to the late-November temperatures, and finally a pretty face and mussed brown hair. </p><p>“So, listen, I’m going to go. Sounds like you and your sugar mama have things to work out.”  She smirked as she sauntered by them and let herself out.</p><p>Numbness spread through Felicity’s body.  She should be crying or having one of her panic attacks, but instead, she just felt paralyzed.</p><p>“Babe, I can explain.”  Cooper stepped into her line of vision, making her realize that she’s just been staring at the door for the last several moments.  He rested his hands on her shoulders, his face wearing its best puppy dog eyes.</p><p>“Well?  Explain.  To your sugar mama,” she added bitterly.</p><p>“Jessica is my, uh, massage therapist.  My back has been—”</p><p>Felicity stepped back, out of his grasp.  “Not dressed like that she isn’t.  Want to try again?  Or you know what?  Don’t bother.”  She pinched the bridge of her nose against the headache that had been brewing all day and now threatened to overwhelm her.  “OK.  I’m done.  <em>We’re</em> done.  And I’m leaving.”  </p><p>She started up the steps, stopping when he grabbed her wrist.  “You’re going to want to let go of me, Cooper.”  </p><p>The coldness in her voice had him dropping her arm.  “How can I make this up to you?  I love you so much.”</p><p>She just shook her head and started back up the stairs, but then she whirled around again on the threshold of their bedroom to address him again.  “How can you possibly think you <em>can</em> make it up to me?  Can you understand how betrayed I feel right now?  This was already one of the worst days of my life, and now…I can’t even look at you.”  He winced away from her yelling as she turned back and walked into the bedroom.  “I just need to get away from this whole situation.  You, work, all of it.”</p><p>He breathed a sigh of relief.  “Sure.  Cool-off time.  I know how you are.  You’ll take some time away—perfect timing with your work issues—and then I will do whatever it takes to win you back.”</p><p>Felicity fought to keep from rolling her eyes.  He really thought they could come back from this?  Instead, it was just making her realize he was totally inadequate in every way and always had been.  Why did she ever think she loved him?  Because I was 17 and dumb, she thought as she walked into the closet and shimmied her largest suitcase down from the upper shelf, nearly knocking herself on the head in the process.  </p><p>She opened it up on the floor and tossed in her clothing, not paying much attention to what she was grabbing from her side of the walk-in closet.  When it was full to bursting, she zipped it up and pulled down the second suitcase in the set.  She rolled them both out into the bedroom, ignoring Cooper who sat on the bed with his head in his hands.  The second suitcase got her clothes from the dresser—underwear and bras, sleep tees and pajamas, socks and yoga pants.  She buried her jewelry box in the middle so that it would be padded on all sides.  She went back for the matching toiletry bag and cleared everything out of their bathroom.</p><p>“I’m going to dump these in my car and come back,” she announced.</p><p>“I can help you.”  Cooper sprang up from where he’d been sitting on the bed.</p><p>Felicity thought about refusing, but decided to be practical—the sooner she could get everything out, the sooner she could leave.  “OK.”  She went back into the closet for a duffel and stuffed it full of shoes, and then a few more outfits from her closet.  She grabbed the duffel, toiletry bag, and the smaller suitcase, leaving the larger one for him.  They traveled in silence down the hall to the elevator, and then out to where she’d parked in front of their apartment.  Everything but the larger suitcase fit into the back cargo space, and Cooper wrestled that into the backseat like he had on their last vacation.</p><p>After heading back upstairs, Felicity quickly gathered up a few of her favorite books and DVDs, put them and some computer equipment into an empty cardboard box, then filled a second one the same way.  Glancing around the main area, she picked up a picture of her and her mom at Felicity’s high school graduation.</p><p>“Take this one, too.”  Cooper handed her a second picture in a matching frame, this one of the two of them in their MIT regalia. “You know, to remind you of the good times.”</p><p><em>Right, the good times, several years ago</em>.  She took it rather than arguing, tucking them both into the second box.  She added the menorah and dreidels sitting on the windowsill, too.</p><p>“You’re- you’re not going to be back for Hanukkah?  Are you going to miss Christmas, too?”</p><p>“I don’t know.  I just need some space,” she said through gritted teeth.  “Maybe you should go visit your parents.”</p><p>“Maybe I will.  Will you go visit your mom?”</p><p>Felicity shuddered.  “And listen to ‘I told you so’ and then suffer through being set up with the sons and grandsons of her coworkers and regulars?  I don’t think so.”  She paused in the middle of adding more books to the box, realizing what she’d just said.</p><p>“I told you so?  Your mom doesn’t approve of us?”</p><p>She shrugged.  “She thought we were too young to get this serious, that I was too young.  She was young when she met my dad, so of course, now all relationships beginning in your teens are automatically doomed.  And I mean, she may have a point—clearly you still have wild oats you need to sow.  Isn’t that the saying?”  She added one more book, picked up the box to test its weight, and went into the kitchen.  She grabbed the wine and the pint of mint chip and added them to the open box.  </p><p>And she needed one more thing, just in case:  she went back into the entryway and lifted her framed diploma off the wall, where it had hung next to Cooper’s.</p><p>"You’re not coming back, are you?" he said dejectedly.</p><p>"I...I don't know. I’m so angry at you right now, but...I just don’t know." She shrugged.  "In the meantime, I might need proof that I graduated, or at least a reminder that I’m an intelligent person, even if I feel like a fool right now."</p><p>"I’m really sorry," he said again.</p><p>"I’m glad to hear it, but I have to go."</p><p>They each carried a box down to her car. "Where will you go, if not to your mother’s?"</p><p>"Somewhere I can think."  Somewhere far away from you, she added mentally.</p><p>She slammed the trunk lid as he shut the passenger car door, having loaded the final two boxes.  "I’m going now.  Please don’t call me."</p><p>As she sat down behind the wheel of her Mini, he asked, "Can’t I just check in on you? I want you to know I’m thinking about you."</p><p>"I need space." She started the car, and he stepped away as she pulled out of the parking space.</p><p>Felicity drove two blocks down the street but had to pull into a McDonald’s parking lot because she had started shaking.  "OK, Felicity, get a grip.  This will be fine." Even as she said it, tears started to pool in her eyes.  She took a moment to press her forehead against the steering wheel and just focus on breathing.  </p><p>When she was a little calmer, she pulled out her phone and searched for hotel deals.  She found a special on a downtown hotel meant for business travelers and booked a room for a night.</p><p>She drove into Starling and parked in the hotel’s parking deck.  After checking in and using a luggage cart to unload her car, she changed into yoga pants and a tank and formed a comfortable nest for herself on the bed with the mountain of pillows provided by the hotel.  She poured some wine into one of the clear plastic cups sitting next to the ice bucket—which she didn’t bother filling, as she’d gotten a red—and unwrapped the plastic spoon she’d filched from the coffee service in the lobby for the half-melted ice cream that was going to be her dinner.  </p><p>Booting up her main laptop, she started up an episode of Doctor Who in one corner of the screen, resized a browser to take up the other half of the screen, and googled “day trips Starling City.”  She wanted to get away from everything and everyone, but wanted to stay relatively nearby—she didn’t want to look suspicious by skipping town, and while she had some savings she had been truthful when she said they needed to job hunt. </p><p>Although, did she even need to live in Starling?  She hadn’t made that many friends, didn’t have a job, and never wanted to see Cooper again.  And it rained a lot, and crime was kind of high.  OK, so maybe she was looking at a nationwide job search.</p><p>But in the meantime, she needed someplace temporary to stay.  Temporary, but cheap.  And maybe she would work on her “little security program,” because let’s face it, she’d hacked enough systems to know that the average computer system’s security was pitiful and in desperate need of assistance.  Her little program had more commercial potential than Cooper’s tired medieval fantasy game.</p><p>She skimmed the search results as she scooped up a spoonful of mint chip, but paused with the spoon halfway to her lips as she saw a familiar name:  Edgewater.  They’d sprung for a week-long vacation down the coast that past summer.  She’d loved it—the scenery, the laid-back vibe of the small towns, and of course the wines—but Cooper had been less enthused, preferring the big city.</p><p>On impulse, she looked through her bookmarks and found the agency who’d rented her the small cottage they’d used as a home base.  Maybe she could find something affordable for a few weeks, someplace quiet where she could work on her program, apply to jobs, and get over Cooper.</p><p>She started using the search engine on the website, but most locations were listed as “closed for the season,” and the rest were already booked or out of her price range.  She recognized “their” cottage on the third page of results.  The reservation button was greyed out, and the description began with, ‘CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS.’  The same message appeared on each of the remaining search results on the page.  When she looked closer, each had the same owners: Sto Druzey Getaways. </p><p>Right, that was it, a Russian saying, something about friends being better than riches.  She’d call them in the morning and see if there was any way she could have her cottage back.  Otherwise, she needed to come up with a Plan B.  But it had been such an exhausting day, and the tears that had been threatening to fall all afternoon were spilling over.  She pulled off her glasses and buried her face in one of the pillows.  She’d let herself fall apart tonight, but tomorrow she’d move forward.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next morning, Felicity availed herself of the free continental breakfast, packed the few items she’d used back into her bags, and then searched for Sto Druzey Getaways.  She found a website—a very basic one, but it included a phone number.  It was almost 10, late enough, so she dialed the number.</p><p>“Da?” a male voice answered.</p><p>“Sto Druzey Getaways?” Felicity asked.</p><p>The voice said something like, “One moment.” </p><p>She heard the receiver clatter to a hard surface, and a moment later a woman spoke into the phone.  “Yes?  You call for Sto Druzey?”</p><p>“Yeah.  Hi.  I was just wondering.  Um, I saw online that your rentals are closed for renovations.  I just wanted to see if maybe one of them was finished, or maybe hadn’t started yet?  I was there with my boyfriend last summer, and now I’d be there <em>without </em>my boyfriend, but, um—”</p><p>The woman interrupted.  “You look for cabin for winter getaway?  Without boyfriend?”</p><p>“Yes, without my <em>ex</em>-boyfriend, who cheated on me.  I need to get away, and I really enjoyed staying with you this summer.  I’m Felicity, Felicity Smoak—we rented the Sunset Bungalow, and Cooper spent a lot of time chained to his computer after the first couple of days so I did some solo wine tastings.  I bought <em>so</em> much wine it barely fit in the car.  It was a little embarrassing.”</p><p>“Blonde hair, in pigtail?  No...ponytail.  You have tiny car.  Not American.”</p><p>“Yes.  That’s me.”</p><p>“Boyfriend was no good.  Better off without him.”</p><p>“Yeah, I think so.  I guess.”  Felicity grimaced at her reflection in the mirror above the hotel desk where she was sitting.  “So, is there any possibility of staying with you for a few weeks?”</p><p>“Is not much activity around.  Some restaurants closed, some open.  Beach cold.”</p><p>“I know.  I need to work anyway.”</p><p>“Nephew here, from Russia.  Do repairs, paint.  Make much noise.”</p><p>“Hmm.  But is he doing every cabin at once?  If he’s finished with any of them, I could take that one.  I’d be so grateful.”</p><p>“He finish smallest, Sea Escape.  But in middle of group, lots of noise.  I give for $500 a week.  For girl with no-good ex.  You take?”</p><p>Felicity sighed in relief.  “I take.  I mean, I’ll take it.  I’ll pack up and be there this afternoon.  Where can I pick up a key?”</p><p>“Oliver will be there with key.  I will have him clean it up for you.”</p><p>“Oh, OK.  Thank you very much.”  She hung up, feeling better than she had in the past 24 hours.  After hauling everything back down to the car, she programmed her GPS and set off.  </p><p>The winding road hugging the coast was beautiful, and Felicity felt defiant as she pulled into town in the early afternoon.  Cooper wouldn’t have enjoyed the drive, wouldn’t appreciate the quaintness of the little shops lining the main street into town.  He would’ve made some derogatory comment about the hippies, seeing two individuals in flowing clothes coming out of a tea shop that apparently was still open.  But that didn’t matter anymore—she was free to enjoy what she enjoyed, and didn’t have to compromise in an attempt to appease him.</p><p>She navigated her way to the side street where the cluster of cottages was located, a few blocks inland from the shore.  Turning into the parking lot, she saw that it was empty other than a dusty pickup truck.</p><p>Felicity parked and got one of the suitcases out of the trunk.  She pulled it behind her as she traversed the winding pathway between the trees screening the parking lot from the cottages, toward the sound of hammering.  </p><p>Entering the more open area in the middle of the cottages, she spotted a man who appeared to be hammering some kind of railing together.  And...what a man—she could only see him from behind, sweat-dampened white t-shirt clinging to rippling back muscles and jeans pulled taut over a spectacular ass.  <em>Really, Felicity, you’re just getting out of a relationship and you’re ready to ogle other guys?</em>  </p><p>She shook herself out of her bemusement and continued forward, toward the man who must be Oliver and was, in fact, making quite a bit of noise with his hammer.  She chose a path that would bring her into his view naturally rather than risk startling him.</p><p>He still jumped when she came into view, muttering a curse as he dropped into a crouch and raised his hammer like he might use it as a weapon.  He straightened up an instant later, body relaxing from his alarmed stance and his face shifting from a scowl to a lazy smile as he looked her up and down.  And that face was stunning, with striking blue eyes and stubble that was really working on him, even though that wasn’t usually her thing at all.</p><p>“Fe-li-ci-ty.”  He dragged out the clearly unfamiliar syllables, and smiled down at her—he was probably about the same height as Cooper but came across as so much more imposing with his more muscular frame.</p><p>“Hi.  Yep, that’s me.  I’m Felicity.  Smoak.”  She held out a hand and he shook it, looking amused.  “So, um, which one of these is my cabin?”  He didn’t answer, just kept smiling at her as if she was the cutest thing he’d ever seen, which was a little disconcerting.  She pointed at the nearest cabin, and he shook his head.</p><p>He set down the hammer and walked up to her.  Felicity was frozen, mesmerized as he stepped into her personal space, jumping when she felt his hand brush against hers clutching the handle of the rolling suitcase.  He tugged gently, and once she let go he started off down one of the paths.</p><p>He beckoned for her to follow and lead her to a different cabin than the one she’d rented with Cooper.  This cabin had railings just like the ones Oliver had been building already installed around the porch that looked out onto the area in the middle of the cabins.  The railings weren’t painted or stained, though, so perhaps the cabin wasn’t 100% complete.</p><p>Oliver easily lifted the suitcase up the stairs with one hand as he dug in his pocket with the other.  Producing a key on a large red keychain, he unlocked the door of the cabin and stepped back to let her in.</p><p>The interior was just as she remembered, with light wood and a blue and green color scheme to remind guests of the seaside location, she supposed.  There was a faint odor of paint, and she could see that the walls were a pristine pale blue, and there were a few streaks of the same color dried onto Oliver’s t-shirt.  </p><p>“Oh, are the walls wet?  Do I need to be careful?” she asked.  When he continued to just look at her curiously, she asked, “Do you speak English?”  When he looked at her blankly, she repeated herself in Hebrew, because why not?  When he shook his head, she drew on her high school French to ask, “Parles français?”  That yielded another head shake, so she offered up, “Habla español?”  A final head shake was a relief because she didn’t actually speak Spanish, either.</p><p>Oliver said something that sounded like, “Pa Roosky?”  Was he asking if she spoke Russian?  She shook her head, and then he asked something else she didn’t even catch, it was such a fast string of syllables.  </p><p>She pulled her tablet out of her bag as she shook her head again, and she unlocked it and navigated to a translation page.  <em>I don’t speak Russian</em>, she typed.  The program detected that she was writing in English, and she chose Russian as the target language.  Below the line of Cyrillic characters was a speaker option, and when she clicked it, a computer-generated voice said, “Ni pa Roosky.”</p><p>His eyes lit up as he nodded.</p><p>She typed, <em>Is the paint still wet?  Do I need to be careful?</em>  </p><p>When she pressed the speaker icon again, he paused for a moment with a confused expression, and she guessed maybe the translation wasn’t perfect, but then he nodded to himself and walked over to a wall.  He touched it, then held up his palm, showing the lack of paint.</p><p>“OK.  Good!”  They both nodded and smiled—they were making this work.  He walked back over and held out a hand for the tablet.  “Oh, you want to try?  Let me just—”  She switched the languages so that it would translate from Russian to English.  “Here.”</p><p>He tapped the screen a few times, then shook his head and handed it back.  </p><p>Felicity could see it was defaulting to a keyboard with a standard Latin alphabet.  “Um, let me see…”  She tapped a few of the settings and got to an option where the user could write on the tablet instead of typing.  “Maybe this will work better?”  She angled the tablet so he could see, then wrote ABC with her finger to demonstrate before wiping that out.</p><p>He took the tablet from her again, and Felicity was so distracted by how tiny the tablet looked in his large hands that she jumped when the speaker said, “She has more trunks.”</p><p><em>More trunks</em>?  “Um, who has...trunks?”</p><p>He gestured toward her suitcase.</p><p>“Oh, suitcases.  Yes, I do.”  She nodded.  “You’re right, I guess I should go get them.”  She left the tablet on the table and walked back out of the cabin, noticing as she took the path toward the parking lot that Oliver was following her.  She called back, “You don’t have to help, you know,” but of course he ignored what he couldn’t understand and kept three paces behind her.  Well, it would be quicker to unload with help, wouldn’t it?</p><p>They trooped out to the parking lot and Felicity opened the trunk.  Oliver gently shouldered her out of the way and soon was carrying the duffel, the second suitcase, and one of the boxes, leaving her with the toiletries bag and the final box.  Oliver was looking puzzled as he muttered in Russian, probably wondering who brings their diploma with them on vacation.</p><p>He effortlessly carried her bags back to her cottage, whereas she was, embarrassingly enough, slightly out of breath by the time they set everything down in the living room.  Oliver immediately started writing with his finger on the tablet.  “Lot of things.  Move away?”</p><p>She nodded, shutting her eyes against the sudden prickle of tears behind her eyes.  Because it wasn’t really a lot of things, not if she was starting over.  Should she try to get half the furniture from their apartment, half the kitchen equipment?  It was overwhelming to think about, either way, but trying to split their shared belongings would mean a lot more time spent with Cooper, and that was the last thing she wanted.</p><p>Her eyes flew open as she sensed Oliver moving toward her, and she got an up-close view of his t-shirt as he enfolded her into a hug, patting her back with one large hand.  The idea that this stranger wanted to comfort her when her boyfriend hadn’t bothered, about her job or his cheating, made a few tears roll down her cheeks.  </p><p>She pulled away to wipe them out from under her glasses, smiling sadly.  “Thank you,” she said before taking a deep breath and looking around.  “I should unpack...but I’m not in the mood.  I think I’m going to go pick up groceries.  Um…”  She mimed spooning something into her mouth.  “Food?”</p><p>“Val-mart,” Oliver said in a heavy accent.  He pointed south, then held up 2 fingers.  Two blocks?  Two exits?  She’d get her GPS to find it.  </p><p>As she reached for her purse, she remembered something she’d skipped.  She grabbed her wallet and waved it in his direction.  “I need to pay for the room.  Can you run a credit card?”  </p><p>She took out her card to show him, but he held up his hands and backed away.  He said something in Russian that she mostly missed, except she thought she heard the word Raisa.  That was the woman who owned the cabins, she thought.  OK, so she guessed he meant she should pay the woman.</p><p>He wrote a few words on the tablet.  “Tomorrow.  Aunt,” the translator said.</p><p>“OK, thanks.”  She stuffed her wallet back in her purse and took two steps toward the door when he made a protesting sound.  He picked up the cabin’s front door key from the counter and handed it to her, and she suddenly felt a little giddy from him standing so close.  “Thanks again.”  He smiled and let himself out, and she followed, locking the door behind her.  She’d see what culinary delights awaited her at the local Walmart and get settled in after dinner.</p><p> </p><p>* * * * *</p><p> </p><p>The next morning she finished unpacking her clothes and settling into the cabin.  As she ate breakfast she set her Hanukkah decorations and the picture of her and her mother on the mantle, but left the one with Cooper in the box with her books.  A knock on the door interrupted her internal debate between using the desk or the dinette for her workspace—the desk was the better space, but the dinette looking out to the porch and the clearing had the better view, even without Oliver out there working up a sweat.</p><p>She opened the door to find Raisa, the owner of the cabins, waiting on the porch.  “Hello!  Come in.”</p><p>Raisa looked around approvingly at the living area.  “The paint is good.  Matches.”</p><p>“I like it.  It’s soothing.”  Felicity walked over to the kitchen counter where she’d left her purse.  “Can I pay for the cabin for the first week?  Do you take credit cards?”</p><p>“Yes, I have the app for that!”  She pulled out her phone and a card swipe add-on.</p><p>“Ooh, cool!”  </p><p>They used the swipe, and Raisa put in the amount.  “I can e-mail a receipt.”  She held out her phone, and Felicity typed in her e-mail address.</p><p>Raise noticed the boxes of books and electronics.  “You move out?  Leave boyfriend?”</p><p>“Yes, that's all I have in the world right now.”</p><p>She tsked.  “You protect yourself.  Close bank accounts you share, end lease.  Get half of stuff.  No freeloading for no-good cheaters!”</p><p>“I- I guess.  I wasn't thinking about any of that.  I just wanted to get away from him.”</p><p>Raisa patted her on the arm.  “Smart girl.  Just don't let him take advantage.”</p><p>“Yeah.  I guess I need to think that through, in between job hunting.  Um, how long can I stay?  I didn't even ask, before.  Are you traveling for Christmas?”</p><p>“No, I have my daughter and her family here in town, and friends, and now Oliver.  We will have Christmas here. Will you stay that long?”</p><p>“Perhaps, if you don't mind.  I can't predict what will happen with my old job, or how quickly I'll find a new one.”</p><p>“What about your family?”</p><p>Felicity waved toward the mantel.  “I'm Jewish, and Hanukkah isn't as big of a holiday.  And my mother always works on Christmas.  This is a busy time in Las Vegas.”</p><p>Raisa nodded.  “I leave you to job hunting, then. Oliver will start work soon—I said to start late today to let you sleep.  Tell him if you need anything.”  She let herself out, and Felicity poured herself another cup of coffee.  She’d sit at the kitchen table, she decided.  Job hunt in the morning, Project Overwatch in the afternoon, take some steps toward disentangling herself from Cooper when she needed a break.  </p><p>Speaking of which...she had silenced her ringer in the hotel two nights ago and never turned it back on.  She checked her call log and...wow, 8 calls from Cooper.  Terrific.  No calls from a Stellmore number, but there were a few calls from coworkers she considered friends. </p><p>She returned a call to Alena, her closest friend at the office.  They commiserated a little; Felicity said she’d gone out of town, but kept it vague as to her exact location, just in case.  The last thing she wanted was for Cooper to track her down.  Alena agreed with her that it was time to job hunt, regardless of whether Stellmore eventually opened back up—the bad press would probably lead to layoffs.</p><p>Felicity spent the rest of the morning updating her resume and setting up profiles on various job search websites.  At a certain point, she heard hammering and looked up to see Oliver back at work on the porch railing.  She smiled to herself as she went back to adding her job at Stellmore to her Dice profile—maybe she gravitated toward Oliver because of his work ethic.  <em>Right, Felicity, and his abs have nothing to do with it</em>.</p><p>A few hours later she was ready to job hunt and was feeling good about her progress.  She checked out the window, thinking maybe she would offer Oliver a sandwich built from the bread and lunch meat she'd picked up on last night’s Walmart run, but he appeared to have gone for his own lunch, so she ate lunch alone and watched another episode of Doctor Who.  </p><p>She spent the afternoon refamiliarizing herself with her plans for the security program.  She’d worked so much overtime in the past couple of months that she’d lost track of what she’d completed and what tasks she had left.  And of course, after all the work they’d done lately on system upgrades at Stellmore, she had new ideas about vulnerability points for hacker attacks.</p><p>After a while, she realized how stiff she felt—too much time sitting in one position, even though the chair was comfortable.  Maybe she would take a walk on the beach and admire the view, even though it was too cold to swim.  She knew Oliver was still out there somewhere because she could hear hammering, but both he and the railing were gone from the clearing.  She picked up the tablet along with her purse, just in case she ran into him.</p><p>She did see him, in fact, installing the railing on the cabin at the end of the row on her side, but his back was to her and she didn’t want to interrupt.  Instead, she cut across the clearing and walked two blocks, crossed the shoreline drive, and then passed between two hotels to reach the beach.</p><p>The day was overcast, and the wind was whipping up waves that crashed impressively against the shore.  Felicity breathed in the salty air, feeling the tension leave her shoulders.  Her program...she’d forgotten how much she enjoyed working on it, the challenge of thinking through all the potential threats from hackers and coming up with solutions.  Her job at Stellmore had been unchallenging for a while now, and the internal upward mobility touted by company recruiters hadn’t materialized.  Of course, it was probably for the best that she’d remained a peon, and thereby kept herself out of whatever shady business had been going on there.</p><p>For now, she had enough in savings—in a bank account Cooper couldn’t access—to cover her living expenses here for a couple of months if need be.  And she was starting to realize how freeing it was to be away from him.  Had he always belittled her?  That “little security program” comment still stung.  And wasn’t it nice to not have to plan her day around his wants?  She wasn’t going to get trapped into thinking it was her fault he cheated, she told herself firmly.  No catastrophic thinking about how everyone leaves you.  This time you’re doing the leaving, on your terms.  </p><p>Speaking of which—the sunset over the water was beautiful, but the temperature was dropping and she needed to get back before it was completely dark.  She turned and retraced her steps, mentally noting for the future which restaurants were open, although tonight she was planning on soup and crusty bread plus the rest of her wine.</p><p>Crossing the parking lot for the cabins, she heard Oliver’s truck engine rev, then stop, then rev and stop again.  She walked over as he hopped out of the truck, pulling her tablet out as he opened the hood and let out a cloud of smoke.</p><p>“Well that’s not good,” she said.  “Car trouble?” she typed out on the tablet and had the translator say in Russian.</p><p>He muttered what were probably curse words as he looked down on the engine.</p><p>She had the translator say, “Do you want a ride?”</p><p>Oliver gave the car a final disgusted look, slammed the hood, and nodded.  She handed him the tablet so that her hands were free to fish through her purse for her car keys.  As she found them and unlocked the doors on the Mini, Oliver had the app say, “Thank you.”</p><p>“You’re welcome,” she replied.</p><p>“Thank you,” the app said again, and she looked over to see Oliver peering at the tablet.  And then he hesitantly said, “Than. Cue.”  He listened to the app, then repeated, “Thankyou.”  He grinned, and Felicity couldn’t help smiling back at his triumph.</p><p>“Which way?”  She gestured with each hand, saying ‘left’ and ‘right’ as he pointed.</p><p>He waved his right hand, so she started up the car and pulled out of the parking lot, then turned right.  Oliver had the tablet dictate her journey, advising right and left turns, once saying, ‘straight five blocks.’  </p><p>She eventually reached streets filled with brownstones, some of which were already decorated for Christmas.  There was more activity here than there was near the beach, with several people out walking dogs, kids riding bicycles, and a couple of guys hanging out on the steps of the house Oliver directed her to.</p><p>She pulled up to the curb next to the house.  Oliver hit play on the translator: “Come meet my friends.”</p><p>“Uh, OK.”  Felicity shut off the ignition.  One of his friends was halfway around the car—was he planning on opening her car door for her like some guy from the 1950s?—when she got out.  She walked around and met him at the head of the car.</p><p>“Tommy,” he said with a charming grin and a slight accent.  “And you must be Felicity.”</p><p>He held out a hand and she shook it.  “You’ve heard of me?”</p><p>Oliver started talking, sounding annoyed.  Tommy answered him, then said to her, “Of course.  You stay at his aunt’s cabins, the only guest.  Oliver says we should beat up your boyfriend for making you cry.”</p><p>Oliver said something to Tommy again as he stepped closer to them.  Tommy danced away as he added, “He told us all about how pretty you are, of course.”  He and the second friend laughed while Oliver asked a question that Tommy ignored.</p><p>Felicity was flustered, but said, “Oh, you shouldn’t tease him.  It must be hard to be here and not speak any English.”</p><p>“Sure, but we’ve all been through it.  Roy’s been here a couple of years.  Your English is good, you just can’t be bothered to talk, isn’t that right?”</p><p>Roy, the second friend, who looked like he’d walked out of an Abercrombie and Fitch ad, said, “Whatever.  Hello, Miss Felicity.”</p><p>“Hi,” she replied with a wave.  “So, are there a lot of Russian immigrants in this town.”</p><p>“Well, yeah, that’s how it works.  Not just from Russia, though.  Just this street—little Rostov.  Two blocks over, little Tokyo.   Five blocks that way, Chinatown.  One person comes, and if it’s OK they send for their family, and word gets back that it’s a good place to live so more people come.  Or, a good place to stay temporarily because you get in trouble with the local mob boss.”  Tommy slanted a look at Oliver, who was looking impatient at the discussion he couldn’t follow.</p><p>“Wait, what?”</p><p>Tommy waved his hand in Oliver’s direction, but ignored the question to say, “Hey, you should come out with us.”  He said something to Oliver in Russian, probably repeating his invite.</p><p>“Niet,” Oliver said firmly, and even she knew that meant no.  He added a bit more, and Tommy grinned.</p><p>“He says we will be a bad influence, but I think he just doesn’t want the competition.”</p><p>Oliver had the tablet say, “Bar rough.  Not for lady.”</p><p>Roy muttered, “He has a point.”</p><p>Tommy held out his hands placatingly.  “Fine.  But we will take you out sometime, someplace nice so you can have some fun and forget all about your ex.”  He said something more in Russian, and Oliver seemed to accept it begrudgingly.</p><p>“OK, sounds fun.  Oh, what will he do to get to work tomorrow?  His truck wouldn’t start.”</p><p>“It’s Raisa’s truck, and we’ll take him.  Roy is a mechanic; I’m sure he’ll be able to fix it up.”  He repeated himself in Russian, and Oliver nodded and handed the tablet back to her.</p><p>“Alright, then, I’m going to get going.  See you tomorrow, Oliver.”  She waved as she walked back around her car and got in.  As she pulled away, she could see Tommy teasing Oliver, based on their body language.  While she wasn’t thinking about getting into another relationship while Cooper’s betrayal was so fresh, their attention was flattering, and the thought of Oliver describing her as pretty sent a warm feeling through her.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next morning, the sound of a hammer woke Felicity up.  Oliver was back at his workbench in the clearing, she could see, working on some kind of smaller project that she couldn’t see in detail while looking out her window. </p>
<p>After a quick shower, she made toast and coffee for herself and settled down for some job hunting.  She searched a few websites but didn’t find a lot that was promising, particularly since she wanted a permanent job rather than a contract position.  Maybe it was just too close to the holidays and the end of the year?  She checked the <em>Starling Gazette</em> and winced when she saw, right under the top headline about Stellmore’s woes, that Luthorcorp had announced layoffs in the application development division at its Starling City location.  Great, just what she needed, several hundred additional candidates competing for the same jobs.</p>
<p>She decided to take a break and see if Roy had fixed Oliver’s truck, so she grabbed her tablet and phone and headed out to the clearing, setting the question up in the translation app on her phone so she could just hit the speaker when she got to him.</p>
<p>Oliver saw her coming and stopped sanding the piece of wood he was holding.  “Hello,” he said hesitantly, in English.</p>
<p>“Hello!  You learned something else in English!”  He made no response to that, so she hit the speaker icon to ask about his truck.  Then she handed him the tablet, already set to translate from Russian to English.  With the two devices, they wouldn’t have to keep switching languages and could talk more quickly.</p>
<p>“He fix,” Oliver had the app say.  “Thank you again for drive.”</p>
<p>“Good.  What are you making today?”</p>
<p>“Surprise,” he replied.</p>
<p>Felicity looked at the pieces of wood, but couldn’t get a sense of what they would end up making.  She frowned down at it, wanting to solve the mystery now, but then shook her head.  She’d see soon enough, wouldn’t she?  She typed, “Did you have fun with your friends?”</p>
<p>He looked off into the distance.  He wrote a few words, then erased them with a grimace and started over.  “I had fun.”</p>
<p>There was a pause, and then he wrote more.  Finally, he pressed the speaker.  “I like Tommy and Roy.  However, I miss my friends in Rostov.  And family.  I do not like not to talk English.”</p>
<p>“Do you have a phone?” Felicity asked, an idea forming.</p>
<p>He sighed and fished in his pocket.  He held out a blocky flip phone, clearly braced for ridicule, and she held up her hands as she backed away.  “Well, that won’t work.  And I don’t have—wait, yes I do!  Hold on.”  She held up a finger, hoping the gesture for ‘one minute’ would be universal.  She sped back to her cabin and got the box that was combined books and electronic equipment from where she’d stashed it in the hallway closet.  She fished through and found what she was looking for near the bottom:  the phone Cooper had used before his current phone.  </p>
<p>Oliver knocked on the door, and she gestured for him to come with her into the kitchen.  She got a cord to connect the phone to her laptop and started checking how badly out-of-date it was.  It wasn’t too bad, all things considered.  She let it start a round of system updates, then typed an explanation on her current phone.  “This won’t work as a phone, but I can install a language app for you.  And I’ll do one, too.  Yeah, that will be fun!”</p>
<p>By the look on Oliver’s face, it didn’t translate well, but he eventually had the tablet say, “I learn English?”</p>
<p>Felicity nodded.  Seeing the phone had finished rebooting, she navigated to the Play store on her laptop, found the highest rated free language app, and started the process of downloading it to the phone.  </p>
<p>She checked the app’s website and there was also a web version, so while she was waiting for the app to install she set up an account for herself, selecting Russian as the language she wanted to learn.  When the installation of the phone version was complete, she left it plugged in but held it up so that Oliver could see.  “See, you can choose your starting language.  So, if I click on the US flag, you get choices, and we pick...that one, right?”</p>
<p>“Da, da.”  He took the phone, being careful not to unplug it.  He looked over the screen, now in Cyrillic characters.  He tapped the screen a few times, and a voice said something in Russian, including a word that sounded kind of like ‘English.’</p>
<p>She held her hand out for the phone, took it back, and quickly set up the phone on the cabins’ wifi.  Felicity went back to the box and found some earbuds.  She typed out on the translation app on her phone, “So you can listen while you work, if you want,” she said as she handed the phone and earbuds to him.</p>
<p>“Thank you,” he said.</p>
<p>For the next few days, they settled into a routine:  Felicity job hunted for a few hours in the morning and then worked on her program.  By the time she’d gotten tired of staring at her computer, it was the warmest part of the day and Oliver was also ready to take a break—it was November, but November in California was still much warmer than Russia, after all. </p>
<p>She would wander out to the clearing and they would repeat back the lessons they’d listened to on their apps.  There seemed to be a set progression of phrases to learn, so as Oliver learned to say, “I am Russian,” Felicity learned, “Ya Amerikanka.”  They’d correct each other’s pronunciation and then move on to slow discussions, conducted mostly via the translation app.  He told her about his family and job as a chef’s assistant, and she shared stories of growing up in Las Vegas and the full story of her breakup with Cooper.</p>
<p>Oliver was mostly working on more sets of railings—she’d asked, and he was replacing them on every cabin because the existing ones were too unstable.  Sometimes, though, she saw him working on a smaller project when she caught sight of him through the window.  On her fourth day at the cabins, he knocked on her door around lunchtime.</p>
<p>She opened it to see him looking surprisingly shy.  “Prezzunt,” he said.  He beckoned her out onto the porch, and she saw that the small pieces of wood he’d been sanding had now been assembled into a clever little table that hooked over the porch railing.  He picked it up to show her that it was easy to move if she wanted direct or indirect sunlight.  She brought her laptop out to the table and he brought out one of the chairs from the kitchen table.  </p>
<p>She sat down at the portable desk, admiring the smoothness of the wood and the cheerful yellow color he’d painted it.  “It’s beautiful.  Blagodaryu vas,” she said, thanking him using one of yesterday’s new phrases.</p>
<p>“You are welcome,” he replied.</p>
<p>And now they had a new routine, where Felicity would work inside in the morning, and then move out to her outside desk after lunch. Oliver seemed to do tasks that required him to be inside the cabins during the morning so that he could hang out nearby in the afternoons.  Not that they talked a lot, with or without the use of translator apps, but the companionship of working nearby each other was just...nice.  Restful, despite the hammering.  He seemed to enjoy listening to her babble to herself as she often did when she wrote code.</p>
<p>Over the next week, she talked to three recruiters and even had a phone interview for a contract position in Central City, which she was ambivalent about—it sounded similar to her job at Stellmore, unchallenging tech support rather than the developer job she really wanted. </p>
<p>Alena seemed to be having a similar experience and joked that maybe she should just try to start her own business when they talked couple of weeks after Felicity had arrived in Edgewater.  She was working on code to send data securely, and got very excited when Felicity described her security program—the two projects were quite complementary, actually, even though they’d been working on them without collaborating.</p>
<p>Felicity was deep in focus that afternoon, setting up a defense against a particular type of virus.  When someone said, “Fe-li-ci-ty,” near her ear, she jumped, bobbling and then dropping her coffee cup. She and Oliver both grasped after it but were unable to catch it.  She watched in horror as the coffee flowed into the spaces between the keys, until a wad of white fabric dropped onto the keyboard.  Oliver reached over her shoulder and rubbed at the keyboard with what must be his shirt.  </p>
<p>Felicity was distracted from the unfolding disaster as she gave in to the urge to turn in her seat, finding herself inches away from Oliver’s bare chest.  <em>Good lord, how could he just walk around in the world looking like that?  He was stunning.</em>  Literally—she looked at him and her brain just kind of...stopped.  </p>
<p>And then he nudged her with his elbow, and she snapped back to reality.  “Frak!”  She bounced out of her chair and flipped the laptop over so that the coffee would drip off, and perhaps even <em>out </em>for what had seeped down underneath the keyboard and was ruining the motherboard as she sat there like a ninny who’d never seen a guy with his shirt off before.  <em>Of course, there was no comparing Cooper and Oliver...</em> </p>
<p>She looked away from the computer to see Oliver clutching his balled-up shirt and looking miserable.  “It’s OK,” she tried to reassure him.  He shook his head and said something that was clearly full of self-recrimination even if she couldn’t understand the exact words.  </p>
<p>Oliver opened the door for her so that she could bring the computer inside and she slid past him, trying not to get caught up in staring.  She laid it on the kitchen counter, keyboard-side down so that it could continue to drain while she grabbed her tool case from the box with the electronics.</p>
<p>As she dashed back into the kitchen, she was congratulating herself for refocusing on what was important—saving her computer, rather than Oliver’s abs—when a flash of unexpected color caught her eye.  Oliver had been standing to her right, so she’d only seen his left side.  Now she realized he must’ve twisted away from her a little, because his right side was purple, green, and yellow from bruises in various phases of healing.</p>
<p>“What happened to you?  Is this what Roy was talking about the other day, something about getting in trouble back in Russia?”  Not that he could follow most of that, as she had her hands full with her tools and had left her phone with the translation app active out on the porch.</p>
<p>“Fe-li-ci-ty.  Sorry.”  He held out the stack of kitchen towels he’d taken out of one of the drawers.  </p>
<p>She set her tools on the counter.  “Blagodaryu vas.  This will be helpful.”  She checked, and yes, she’d powered off the computer at some point.  She set down a layer of towels, then started the process of unscrewing all of the tiny screws keeping the back of the laptop attached.</p>
<p>A shallow bowl was set on the counter near, but not too near her right hand.  She looked up to see Oliver anxiously watching her work.  “Helpful.  Thanks.”  She set the screws she’d already removed in the bowl and kept working until she was ready to remove the back panel.  She held her breath as she did so, and was pleased not to see a flood of coffee.  “See?  It’s not so bad.”</p>
<p>She felt calm enough to step out to the porch and grab her phone.  “What happened to you?” she typed into the translator.  She pressed the speaker as she walked back into the kitchen.</p>
<p>Oliver ducked his head, looking embarrassed.  He pulled out his phone and tapped at it.  His translator said, “Bad man bothers girl.  I stop.  Man and friends fight me.”</p>
<p>“It looks bad.  Does it hurt?  Did you break anything?” Felicity typed.  She stepped closer, hand reaching out to touch without thinking about it.</p>
<p>“No.”  He sounded breathless, and when she looked up she realized just how close they were standing.  With her feet bare and him in work boots, he was so much taller.  He’d need to bend down a little for them to kiss...her gaze flickered up to his face in time to catch his tongue flicking out to wet his lips, and the look in his eyes was just so...soft.  Had anyone ever looked at her quite like that?</p>
<p>A voice called out, “What’s going on here?” and Felicity jerked away reflexively, turning to see Raisa standing in the doorway.  She continued on in Russian, sounding annoyed as she spoke to Oliver.  </p>
<p>He said something back, and Felicity jumped in before he could take the blame.  “I spilled coffee on my laptop, and Oliver sacrificed his shirt to help mop it up before the liquid killed it.  I’m, uh, very grateful for his help.”</p>
<p>“He says it was his fault.”</p>
<p>Felicity shook her head.  “I was off in my own little world and the cup slipped out of my hand.  It was just an accident.”</p>
<p>Oliver said something else to Raisa, and she could tell from his tone he was acting guilty.  They had a brief conversation, and then Raisa said, “We would like you to come over to dinner on Saturday.  Oliver will cook for you, to make up for this trouble.  He is an excellent cook; you will enjoy it.  You are cooped up too much here, anyway.  I will have him invite his friends, Tamas and Rostislav, so you have someone to talk to while he’s in the kitchen.”</p>
<p>“Tommy and Roy?  I met them.”</p>
<p>“Good.  Good.  Come at 7.  Is there anything you don’t like?”</p>
<p>“I’m allergic to nuts.  And I don’t really eat pork.”</p>
<p>Raisa relayed that to Oliver, Felicity guessed, and then said something else—she thought she heard the word for ‘shirt.’  Oliver picked up his t-shirt from the counter, grimacing at the brown stains across the body.</p>
<p>“Wait.”  Felicity held up one finger.  “Tell him I have something he can borrow,” she told Raisa.   </p>
<p>She grabbed an oversized MIT t-shirt she sometimes slept in out of the chest of drawers in her bedroom and brought it out to the living room.  Oliver and Raisa were having an animated conversation that ground to a halt when she entered the room, even though she couldn’t follow it.</p>
<p>Oliver pulled on the shirt, and Felicity noticed him wincing slightly as he lifted his arms over his head.  She wondered how many other signs of pain she’d missed, or passed off as him naturally being a bit grumpy.  </p>
<p>“I go work,” he had the translator say.  “Thank you, Felicity,” he added, smiling down at the set of formulas that solved to M, I, and T printed on his shirt.  He nodded to his aunt as he passed by her on his way out of the cabin.  </p>
<p>Raisa said, “He doesn’t bother you, does he?  He is just working to keep busy.  He helps, but...it’s Christmas, I can tell him to take time off.  You have one bad boyfriend, probably don’t want another, right?”</p>
<p>“Oh, no, he, uh, he’s great.  Uh, I mean, he’s—”  She broke off, sure her face was beet red.  “I’m glad he was here to help rescue my computer.  I- I enjoy talking to him.  Well, trying to talk to him.  He’s nice.”</p>
<p>“He is a good boy, is Oliver.  But he is not here forever, and you both have troubles.  Changes.”</p>
<p>“That’s true,” Felicity said on a sigh.</p>
<p>“No job yet?”</p>
<p>“No, nothing yet, and no word from my current job.  Oh, you’re here for payment for the week, aren’t you?  I do have it, of course.”  She pulled her credit card out of her purse and they performed the weekly transaction.</p>
<p>“I- I might have to go back to Starling City in a couple of weeks.  I took your advice:  I gave notice on the apartment we shared, because it was in my name, so he, we have to be moved out by the end of the year.  We’re going to split the furniture and things.  I don’t know what I’ll do with my half—put them in storage, maybe.”</p>
<p>“If you need help, you let us know.  And you are always welcome back, since you don’t mind the construction.”</p>
<p>"OK, thanks.  I'll do that." </p>
<p>"Will your computer be OK?"</p>
<p>Felicity glanced over to where it lay on the counter.  “I think it’ll be OK.  And if not, I have a backup computer and my tablet.  But I better get back to cleaning it off.”</p>
<p>“Alright.  We’ll see you Saturday.”</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Saturday dawned windy and overcast.  Oliver sometimes worked on Saturdays, but Felicity knew he wouldn’t on a day like this.  And she might’ve wanted to walk on the beach or drive out to the nearby state park, but not if it was going to rain.  Instead, she decided to take the day off from her job hunt:  she did her laundry and then she allowed herself a few hours to just curl up on the couch and read a book while listening to the rain.</p><p>She debated what to wear, finally settling on a red dress with a full, knee-length skirt and a modest neckline, because she didn’t want to give Raisa the wrong idea.  And that Tommy seemed like a huge flirt, so she probably shouldn’t encourage him.  </p><p>She grabbed a bottle of wine from her collection from local vineyards and set out for Little Rostov. She used her GPS to navigate to the address he’d texted her and found a parking space on the street a few houses down from Raisa’s.  </p><p>When she knocked on the door of the brownstone, an unfamiliar woman about Felicity’s age answered.  “You must be Felicity.  My cousin broke your computer?”  She stepped back and beckoned Felicity inside.</p><p>“No, I spilled coffee on it, he’s just taking the blame.  And it’s fine, anyway—I was able to clean it off.  You’re Raisa’s daughter?”</p><p>“Yes, I’m Marina.  Nice to meet you.”  They shook hands, and Marina waved her down the hall.  “Everyone’s hanging out in the kitchen, getting in Oliver’s way and making him nervous, we’re told.”</p><p>“I brought wine, from Silver Fork Vineyards.”</p><p>“That’s one of my favorites!  See, you fit right in.  Kitchen’s to your left, there.”  </p><p>Felicity stepped into the kitchen, which seemed to be packed full of people and noise.  Raisa was standing at an island in the middle, chopping tomatoes for a salad.  Tommy and Roy were talking to a third man who Felicity guessed was Marina’s husband.  A boy and a girl were playing some sort of game and were dodging around and between the adults while giggling.</p><p>Oliver had his back to the room as he stirred something on the stovetop, but turned when Marina said, “Felicity is here.” </p><p>He wiped his hands on a towel as he walked toward her, smiling what she’d come to think of as his ‘Felicity smile,’ because it seemed to be a look reserved just for her.  </p><p>“Vino.”  She held out the wine bottle to him, and wasn’t it funny that ‘vino’ was the word for wine?  And apparently, her nervousness over this dinner now had her babbling to herself—great.</p><p>“Thank you,” he said.  He said something in Russian to Tommy over his shoulder as he set it the wine on the counter.</p><p>Tommy broke off from his conversation with Roy and the other man.  “He says he’s making Pelmeni, and this will go well with it.  Hello, Felicity.  It’s nice to see you again.”</p><p>“Hello, Tommy.  And Roy.  And we haven’t met, I’m Felicity, Raisa’s renter.”  She waved at Roy and the third man.</p><p>“That’s Daniel, my husband,” Marina said.  “And the kids that ran out of here are ours, Josh and Sophia.”</p><p>“Um, is there anything I can do to help?” she asked Raisa, thinking even with her limited cooking skills she could prep a salad.</p><p>“You’re our guest, you just relax.  Tamas, pour her some wine.  Save hers for dinner, but you’ve got an Addison Farms open, right?”</p><p>“Yes, ma’am.”  He grinned and did as he was told, handing Felicity a glass with a flourish.</p><p>Raisa moved on to chopping a bell pepper.  “And how is your computer?  No lasting damage from your and Oliver’s little accident?”</p><p>“It’s fine.  I cleaned everything and it’s working perfectly.”</p><p>Oliver said something that included the word ‘computer.’</p><p>Daniel asked, “So you’re a computer wiz?  That’s what you do for your work?”</p><p>Felicity winced.  “Well, sort of.”  She launched into an explanation of her current troubles.  They’d all heard about Stellmore, of course, and were sympathetic to her situation.</p><p>Marina perked up as if she’d had a sudden thought.  “So, could I hire you to fix a computer?  My laptop freezes up sometimes and I lose my work.  It’s really annoying!”</p><p>“Sure.  And I mean, you don’t have to pay me—”</p><p>“Nonsense.  You’d be taking time away from your job hunt.  You should be compensated.”  She suddenly looked like a younger version of her mother as she made a declaration of how it should be.</p><p>“Well, I’d love to help,” Felicity said.  She was watching Oliver out of the corner of her eye as he mixed what looked like salad dressing in a jar.  There was just something about him using his hands…</p><p>“Felicity!” Tommy said loudly, startling her out her thoughts.  “After dinner, we’re going to check out a Russian band playing at The Mill.  You want to come?”  When she hesitated, he added, “Oliver will be less grumpy if you come, so you’d be doing us a favor.”</p><p>Oliver muttered something, apparently following this enough, and Tommy said something back to him in Russian.  She thought...was that the word ‘help?’ </p><p>“Um, OK, sure.  I haven’t really done anything social in...a while.  It’d be good to get out.”</p><p>Oliver announced, “We eat.”  He handed off serving dishes to Tommy, Roy, and Daniel, and the kids got to carry a basket of rolls and a butter dish. Oliver opened the wine she’d brought, and he handed her the salad dressing he’d just made, hands brushing hers as he transferred the jar to her.  He shooed everyone toward the kitchen entrance, and Felicity followed the family into the dining room where the table was already set for the nine of them.  </p><p>Raisa sat at one end, and Oliver sat at the other.  Roy pushed her gently toward Oliver’s end so that she ended up seated on his right, with Roy next to her and Tommy opposite.  Raisa’s daughter and her family took the seats at her end of the table.</p><p>As everyone passed the food, Raisa described the dishes.  “We have a garden salad, rye rolls, Olivier salad, Pelmeni, sweet and sour cabbage, and pickled mushrooms.”</p><p>Roy said, “And Olivier salad is not named after Oliver, it’s a traditional dish.”</p><p>“I was about to ask,” Felicity said.</p><p>“It’s really good,” Sophia informed her.  </p><p>Roy passed the bowl to her, and she took a scoop.  It looked like potato salad, which she liked, just with some extra add-ins.  They passed around all of the dishes and Felicity took a little of everything, figuring she’d find something she liked. </p><p>She loaded up her spoon with one of the Pelmeni and some of the broth, took a bite, and moaned, actually <em>moaned</em>, at how good it was.  Tommy snickered, but she ignored him because she was too busy savoring Oliver’s cooking.  </p><p>“Eto kusno.” She repeated the phrase she’d memorized earlier, glad that she could say it and mean it.  Oliver was sitting up very straight and was wearing a small smile.  She told Tommy, “You tell him, it’s amazing.”</p><p>Tommy rattled off some Russian and Oliver responded.  “He says it was nothing.  He likes to cook for people.”  </p><p>Felicity wanted to argue, because this was definitely not nothing, but she was too busy chewing.  The dining room fell silent for a bit as everyone enjoyed the food.  Talk eventually resumed; most of the table was bilingual, and the kids had a good time translating for Oliver and Felicity, as well as teaching her new Russian words and laughing good-naturedly at her pronunciation.</p><p>Felicity was eyeing the last roll sitting alone in the bread basket—made with his own sourdough starter!—but she realized she couldn’t eat another bite.  </p><p>She let out a disappointed sigh, and Oliver laughed.  “You like?” he asked, like he still couldn’t believe she actually liked his cooking.</p><p>“Da!”</p><p>“Yeah, Uncle Oliver, eto kusno!”  Everyone around the table nodded.</p><p>"He should open his own restaurant," she said.</p><p>Raisa translated, adding, "I agree" in English.  "And you have not even tasted the honeycake he made for dessert!"</p><p>"Oh god, there's more?"  Felicity patted her stomach, assessing whether or not she could fit anything else in there.</p><p>Oliver left the table and was back moments later, carefully holding two individual plates in each hand.  He set one of them down before her, and she eyed the thin layers of golden cake and some kind of cream.  “This looks amazing.  And also time-consuming.”</p><p>Marina replied, “Oh, it is.  Oliver made Medovik <em>and</em> Pelmeni?  He must’ve spent hours in the kitchen.”</p><p>Felicity was touched that he went to all this trouble for her, and couldn’t wait to try it.  Oliver came back with plates for the remaining guests, and everyone dug in, silence once more reigning over the room as the family was too busy eating to talk.  When she found the self-control to put down her fork for a minute, she asked about the cake, and Raisa and Marina explained what sounded like a very involved process to make and assemble all of the layers.</p><p>Finally, Roy checked his phone and said, “We should get going soon.  We’re going to see Borderline Mechanical play at The Mill, and they go on stage at 9.  My dolzhny idti.”</p><p>She and Tommy stabbed their last bites of cakes on their plates and ate them, despite them being too much for one bite, and Roy laughed.  When she was finally able to swallow, she said, “OK, I’m ready!”</p><p>Oliver said something, and Raisa waved him off with a response in Russian.  “We will do the dishes since Oliver cooked.  You all enjoy yourselves at the concert.”</p><p>The four of them excused themselves, grabbed their coats from the hooks on the entryway, and went outside.  After a brief discussion between the guys that Felicity couldn’t follow other than she thought they said ‘her’ once, Tommy asked, “Are you OK driving?  We could follow you back to the cabins and then all drive together if you’d like—it’s Roy’s turn to be the designated driver.  Or I can drive my car, you can follow, and then you’re free to leave whenever you want.”</p><p>“Let’s do that.  I’m in a bit of a food coma right now, and I’m not sure how alcohol is going to mix with that.”</p><p>“Great.  I’ll pull my car around and you can follow me.  Oh, and take Oliver—he can help with directions.”  </p><p>He jogged off before she could say anything to that, leaving an amused-looking Roy and a bashful-looking Oliver, who haltingly said, “I practice.  Left.  Right.”</p><p>“Perfect!”  She beamed at him in encouragement.  She unlocked her car as she walked around to the driver’s side door, and Oliver was fastening his seatbelt in the passenger’s seat by the time she’d seated herself.  </p><p>Oliver guided her through the town to a neon-lit bar.  Tommy and Roy were already waiting near the door, and they showed their IDs and paid the entry fees, Oliver paying hers before she could pull out her card.  Tommy made a beeline to the bar, waving them toward the tables that ringed the dance floor that was inset down a half-dozen steps. </p><p>They snagged one of the tables with a good view of the stage, where several people were setting up a drum kit and plugging in amps.  Meanwhile, the dance floor was already packed with people dancing to the recorded music played over the bar’s sound system.</p><p>Tommy arrived moments later, setting three shots and a soda on the table.  “Drink up.  First round’s on me.”</p><p>“Vodka?” Felicity asked, eyeing the clear liquid in the shot glass.</p><p>“Of course,” he said as he sat down.  He clinked his shot glass against hers and Oliver’s, then knocked it back in one gulp.</p><p>Felicity shrugged and picked hers up.  Oliver tapped her glass with his, and then they drank them together.</p><p>Roy said, “Tommy, two girls, directly behind you on the dance floor, seem to be alone.  Dibs on the blonde.”</p><p>Tommy turned in his seat, checking out two girls dancing together near the edge of the dance floor, who giggled when he caught them staring at him and Roy.  “OK, then, we’re off.  Have fun, you two!”  He clapped a hand on Roy’s shoulder as he stood, and the two of them made their way to the nearest stairs down to the dance floor.</p><p>Felicity pulled out her phone and her earbuds, offering one to Oliver as she put the other in her left ear.  He scooted his chair closer so that he could use the second earbud in his right ear while she started up the translation app and typed, “Dinner really was amazing.”</p><p>“Mushrooms are recipe from my job,” he typed.  “But Pelmeni and Medovik are from mother.  I bake for sister’s birthday each year.”</p><p>“Thea, right?”</p><p>“Yes.  Thea is 14.  Was always little tagalong, but now only likes shopping and boys.”  He shook his head in dismay.</p><p>“You miss your family.”</p><p>“Very much.  But is good to have little adventure here, and help out Aunt Raisa.”</p><p>Felicity typed, “And get away from mobsters!  Did you go to the doctor?  You could have broken ribs.”</p><p>He looked away.  “Is nothing.”  When she huffed exasperatedly, he added, “Mostly healed now.  Just bruises.  I had broken rib once, hit with baseball.  I remember how it felt.”</p><p>“Oh.  Well, that’s good.”  They fell silent, watching the dancers.  Roy was dancing with his blonde, and Tommy was leading a girl up the stairs toward the bar.</p><p>Oliver picked up his shot glass and waved it in her direction.  She shook her head, wanting to be safe to drive later.  He then nudged Roy’s untouched soda in her direction.  “Band starts soon.  Will be warm by the time he returns.”</p><p>Persuaded by that argument, she took a sip, glorying in the coolness coating her suddenly dry throat.  Why was she feeling so nervous?  She slanted a glance at him, only to see his eyes fastened on her lips, where she’d just licked away the last of her sip of soda. </p><p>And just like that, Felicity admitted that perhaps her little crush wasn’t just physical attraction, and wasn’t one-sided.</p><p>“Felicity.”  Oliver said her name in the special tone he used with her, deeper, a little raspy, seemingly designed to send shivers up and down her spine.  He leaned toward her as if he was going to say something else.</p><p>But then a voice boomed through the loudspeaker, “What’s up, Edgewater?  Make some noise for Borderline Mechanical!”  The crowd cheered, and four women stepped from behind a partition onto the stage.  Two of them strapped on guitars and the other two settled themselves behind a keyboard and a drum kit.  The drummer tapped out a count, a quick ‘one-two-three-four,’ and then the band started up a catchy melody.</p><p>“I know this song.  This is on the playlist you shared!”  The original was sung by a man, Felicity thought, but the cover band was turning it into something more poppy and danceable.</p><p>He nodded.  “Want to get closer?”</p><p>Felicity took a final sip of the soda, then stood and held out her hand to Oliver.  She kept her earbud in, perfectly able to hear the music around it, which necessitated keeping close to Oliver as they walked up to the railing to watch the band, with the other earbud in his ear and the phone in his shirt pocket.</p><p>The crowd cheered as the song ended, and the band launched immediately into the next song.  Felicity didn’t recognize this one, but she caught words and phrases here and there from her improving knowledge of Russian:  ‘I don’t understand’ and ‘heart.’  She found herself bouncing in place to the rhythm.</p><p>The band played several more songs, two of which she recognized.  When she was jostled by the crowd, Oliver stepped directly behind her, looping an arm around her waist protectively.  And that was…wow.  He’d hugged her before, touched her casually, but something about this position was incredibly distracting.  Her mind drifted, imagining him bending down a few inches and kissing her neck, or the shell of her ear and around her piercing—she loved that.  She could also imagine being alone with him, bent over the railing, skirt flipped up around her waist.</p><p>She could feel her cheeks heating, and maybe Oliver could see it from over her shoulder, or maybe he felt her breath speed up or her heart start to pound, because he leaned close to her ear and said her name questioningly.</p><p>Felicity turned around to meet his gaze.  The lights from the club pulsed over his face, green, blue, and gold, highlighting darkened eyes and the flush along his cheekbones.  So it wasn’t just her…and hadn’t been for a while, she admitted to herself.</p><p>So what did she want?  Him, she thought.  Her hand rested on his upper arm, and it would be so easy to slide it up to his shoulder and tug him down for a kiss.  But was this <em>really</em> what she wanted?</p><p>Doubts and fears came crashing down on her and she spun away, the distance yanking the earbud out of her ear.  She used her smaller stature to wind her way through the crowd, practically breaking into a run as she reached the club’s entrance.  She needed air.  She needed to think.</p><p>“Felicity!” Oliver called out behind her.  She shivered, partly because she’d left her coat in the car, but partly because his voice sent chills up her spine.  She stopped on the sidewalk and let him come to her, halfway between the parking lot and the smokers gathered to the side of the club doors.</p><p>“I need to think,” she said rapidly before he could say anything.  “I’m just getting out of my first long-term relationship ever, my job is in question, I’m not sure where I’m going or what I want, and you don’t even live here permanently, and it’s probably not fair to rebound with you, and…I’m going home.  I just need to go back to the cabin.  Uh, ya idu.”  She waved in what she thought was the direction of the cabins.</p><p>Oliver couldn’t understand most of what she’d just babbled at him, of course, but he must have been able to read her tone and see that she was embarrassingly close to tears.  He handed back her phone and earbuds.  “Is OK?”</p><p>She nodded.  “I’ll be OK.  Blagodaryu vas.”  She hesitating, thinking she should type out an explanation for her histrionics, but in the end, she just nodded one more time and walked away.  The smokers booed as she left, which just made her feel that much worse.  Had she been leading him on?  Wouldn’t he be better off with someone who knew her own mind?</p><p>She managed to suppress any tears until she reached the cabins, but ended up lying in bed for quite some time before falling asleep, alternating between tears of regret and tears of frustration.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>sorry??</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Felicity woke late the next morning and stumbled, bleary-eyed, into the kitchen.  She drank her first cup of coffee with her eyes shut, leaning against the kitchen counter.  Had she really almost kissed Oliver last night?  What was she thinking?  </p>
<p>I was thinking he’s hot, and kind, she mentally replied, then winced.  Part of her wanted to just...go for it.  Have a little fun.  Use Oliver as some sort of palate cleanser to get over Cooper.  Another part of her thought that would be massively unfair to him, to pursue him when she wasn’t really heart-whole and ready for another relationship.</p>
<p>And a third part—the part of her that was so devastated by Cooper’s betrayal, the part that she tried to keep buried so that she could keep moving and not collapse into a depressed mess—that part didn’t want to pursue any sort of relationship, ever.  That was the part of her that whispered that she’d always be the one left behind, she’d never be good enough, that there was no point getting attached to anyone, particularly someone who’d only be in the country for a few months at most.</p>
<p>She looked over at her laptop, shut down and sitting on the kitchen table.  She should do some job hunting—there were probably new jobs posted Friday she hadn’t seen, and maybe on Saturday as well.  She should work on her program, too, but she had a slight headache from the loud music and the late night, and she really wasn’t in the mood to stare at a screen.</p>
<p>Maybe she should take a drive?  But it was just as gloomy as it had been yesterday, so outdoor activities were out.  She’d done chores yesterday, so the only thing she still needed to do was make a grocery run, and there was no way she wanted to brave Wal-Mart on a Sunday.</p>
<p>Felicity continued to listlessly try to come up with a plan for the day as she showered and washed her hair.  She hadn’t called her mother yet to wish her a Happy Hanukkah, so maybe she should do that?  She’d have to admit everything about her job and Cooper, but it might be good to talk to someone who’d let her vent.  But she knew what her advice would be regarding Oliver:  ‘Climb him like a tree, baby!’</p>
<p>She emerged from the bathroom still without any ideas about what to do that day.  As she was getting dressed, her phone dinged on the dresser where it was charging.  When she checked it, she saw three missed calls, two voicemails, and several texts from Alena—the most recent saying, ‘When are you getting here?’</p>
<p>Her heart started pounding as she was filled with...dread.  That was dread, definitely.  Wow, she hadn’t realized just how much she didn’t want to go back to Starling City, or her job.  The first missed call and voicemail was from the same unfamiliar number with a Starling area code.  </p>
<p>She listened to the voicemail first, and it was her boss:  “Felicity, it’s Dennis.  We have clearance from the authorities and the Board to begin steps toward resuming operations, and that means getting our computer systems back and up and running.  Please give me a call as soon as possible so we can discuss your return to work!”</p>
<p>Felicity dutifully called him back.  “Felicity!” his voice boomed over the speaker.  “I’m so glad to hear from you!  We’ve gotten some good news from the feds and the board in the past two days.  We’d like to begin reopening the business on Monday, and that begins with the IT department!  Can I count on you?”</p>
<p>“Um, well—”</p>
<p>“Oh, no, you didn’t find another job, did you?”</p>
<p>“No, no, nothing like that, but I’m not in Starling.  But I can get back to the city today, I guess.  I’ll just need to work out where to stay.”</p>
<p>“Wonderful.  I’ll see you at 9 am tomorrow, then!”  He hung up as she mumbled her agreement, leaving Felicity in a daze.  Had she just agreed to return to the job she disliked?  More to the point, had she just agreed to leave Edgewater, and Oliver?  Was she being cowardly and using this as an excuse, or was she being practical, thinking of her dwindling bank account?</p>
<p>She jumped as the phone rang again, and she saw it was Alena, who immediately started speaking when Felicity answered.  “Hey, are you coming back?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I guess.  I didn’t find anything better while we were closed.”</p>
<p>“Me, neither.  Where are you going to stay?  You’re not going back to Cooper, are you?  You can sleep on my couch until you find a new apartment.”</p>
<p>Felicity sighed in relief.  “Really?  That’s so nice of you!”</p>
<p>“Hey, we’ve all had that one boyfriend who desperately needs to be kicked to the curb.  I wouldn’t want you to get sucked back into his orbit.”</p>
<p>She snorted.  “No chance of that.”</p>
<p>“Felicity Smoak, did you meet someone new?”</p>
<p>“Yes, but it’s hopeless because he’s just visiting the country.  And anyway, I guess I’m leaving Edgewater for Starling.”</p>
<p>“Don’t sound so thrilled,” Alena said.</p>
<p>“I think I’m as thrilled as you are.  Are we really going back to nine-to-five IT girl drudgery?”  Felicity looked around the room, starting to calculate what she’d need to pack up beyond what would fit in her suitcases.</p>
<p>“Just for now,” Alena replied firmly.  “We’re going to keep looking for something better, and/or think seriously about going out on our own, or even teaming up!  We’re too smart for that place, and it seems likely that they’ll be some downsizing in the company’s future so we need to get out on our own terms.”</p>
<p>Felicity sighed.  “Let’s hope.”</p>
<p>“We’ll make it happen!  Now get packing so that you can get back here.  Big Belly Burgers for dinner, and you can tell me all about your hopeless new guy?”</p>
<p>“B-cubed!  Maybe there are a few things about Starling that I’ve missed...OK, factoring in time to pack, I’ll be there this afternoon.”</p>
<p>“See you then!”  They hung up, and Felicity dug through the chest of drawers for a different outfit—the yoga pants and sweatshirt she’d chosen for a day of aimless lounging in the cabin wouldn’t do for a winter road trip.  She brought the clothes into the bathroom and grabbed her toiletries bag from under the sink.  As she finished getting dressed and putting on makeup, she stashed the items she’d finished using into the bag.  When she was done she’d completely cleared out of the bathroom except for the towels and trash. </p>
<p>She moved through the remaining rooms of the cabin, boxing up books and movies, packing clothes and shoes.  And then she began the process of cramming all of her belongings back into the Mini, along with a half-dozen bottles of wine and a painting from a local artist she’d picked up at one of the gift shops last week.</p>
<p>She walked through the cabin one more time but found nothing out of place—once she cleaned out the refrigerator, which was thankfully fairly empty, she’d be ready to go.  She just needed to let Raisa know...and call Oliver.  What was she going to say to him?  Sorry I almost kissed you?  Sorry I <em>didn’t </em>kiss you?  Sorry I’m running away?</p>
<p>Before she could work up the courage to call him, there was a knock on her door and there he <em>was</em>, smiling shyly.  “You OK?” he asked.  “Hello,” he added ruefully, flashing a wider grin before glancing at the ground bashfully.</p>
<p>“Oliver!  Hi!”  She leaned against the doorframe, blocking the doorway so he wouldn’t see the emptiness of the cabin, but then she realized she was being ridiculous.  She stepped back and waved him in, turning so she could grab her phone because her limited Russian vocabulary was not up to this conversation.</p>
<p>“I have to go back,” she typed into the translator.  </p>
<p>He had pulled out his phone while she typed, and he responded, “Empty apartment with boyfriend?”</p>
<p>She shook her head.  “For work.  The company is opening again.”  She was watching his face as she pressed the speaker icon, and she saw it—that moment of disappointment and sadness before his expression shifted to resigned and he even managed a small smile as he typed.</p>
<p>“Is good, yes?  Have job, money.”</p>
<p>“Da, da, but…”  She had to wipe away tears before typing, “But I will miss you, and this place.  And Raisa, Tommy, Roy.”</p>
<p>Oliver pulled her in for one of his bear hugs, and Felicity tried to absorb every sensation and burn it into her memory.  Finally, he pulled away and cupped her face with his large hands.  “Friend,” he said firmly.</p>
<p>“Droog,” she agreed, smiling through her tears.  She grabbed her phone and typed out, “Text me every day.  I want to keep practicing Russian.”</p>
<p>"Yes, yes."  He typed out, "I come remove things, scare boyfriend. If need."</p>
<p>"OK." She managed a watery chuckle.  "I'd like to see that."</p>
<p>"Things to carry to car?" He typed.</p>
<p>She typed back, "My car is packed.  I just need to clean out the refrigerator and cabinets."</p>
<p>"I do," he said, then typed, "Leave now and home before dark, safe?"  He frowned and added, "Not with boyfriend?"</p>
<p>She typed back, "No, friend from work.  Girl.  Girl friend."</p>
<p>"Good.  That you have home to stay."</p>
<p>"Da." Felicity looked up at him, wondering if she should say anything else, if she should somehow express her feelings, but the fact that she didn't truly know what she felt made her hesitate and the moment was gone.</p>
<p>"Key?" he typed, and she remembered the cabin key tucked inside an inner pocket of her purse.  She grabbed it and handed it to him, careful not to touch him because she thought it might make her cry. His fingers curled tightly around the key for a moment before he stuffed it into his pocket.</p>
<p>Felicity abruptly decided that if she was never going to see him again, she wanted one more memory to take with her back to Starling.  She stepped up to him, rose on tiptoe as she tugged his head down with a hand at his neck, and kissed him.  Just one quick kiss, she promised herself, letting go of him and rocking back a half step before she could lose herself in the softness of his lips, the solid safety of his arms.</p>
<p>Oliver smoothed her hair back and kissed her forehead.  “Goodbye, Felicity,” he said.</p>
<p>And then, with a final caress of her cheek, he let her go.  He held his palm out to her, and they walked hand-in-hand out the door, through the clearing and the trees screening the cabins from the parking lot, and out to her car.</p>
<p>Felicity opened the car door but hesitated before getting inside.  “Oliver, I…” she trailed off, shaking her head.  “Good luck.  Text me.”</p>
<p>He took a few steps back and she slid into the seat and started the car.  They waved as she put the car in gear, and then she was off, one eye watching him in the rearview mirror until she turned out of the parking lot toward the interstate and he passed from view.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>* * * * *</p>
<p> </p>
<p>When Felicity arrived in Starling that afternoon, Alena helped her unload the car and dump her boxes and suitcases in a corner of Alena’s living room.  </p>
<p>They dropped onto the couch after they brought in the last load.  Alena said, “So, about Big Belly Burger.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I’ve been craving their fries...nobody else seasons their fries like that.”</p>
<p>“Uh, I invited a couple of our coworkers, Cisco and Curtis, you know them?”</p>
<p>Felicity groaned.  “Not a double date, c’mon.”</p>
<p>“No, no—Curtis is gay, for one thing.”</p>
<p>“You mean Curtis with the Olympic medals?  The super-tall guy from Operations?”</p>
<p>“Yeah, that’s him, and Cisco is from Consumer Electronics.  So, anyway, they both have little side projects like we do.  Curtis has had some ideas about new ways of measuring employee achievements and wants to work on some software for human resources.  And Cisco’s passion project is next-gen tools and gear for firefighters.  They both live nearby; I ran into them at Jitters a couple of weeks ago at a meetup for laid-off Stellmore employees.  We’ve had coffee a couple of times since then, and we were thinking about taking our projects more seriously, and also working together.  And I thought you might want in!” Alena finished in a rush.</p>
<p>“Um…”</p>
<p>“We’re not saying we want to quit Stellmore tomorrow and form a start-up or anything—”</p>
<p>Felicity snorted.  “Well, <em>I</em> kind of want to quit Stellmore tomorrow and form a start-up.  Or something.  I almost started crying when I saw Dennis’s name on my phone.  How far along are you with setting it up?”</p>
<p>Alena sighed in relief.  “We’re thinking about working on it part-time, evenings and weekends, for a little bit.  Curtis is actually pretty far along with his HR project, plus he has some ideas about a battery, so he’s into hardware as well, and I know you like that stuff, too.  So we’re thinking about how much we want to collaborate, versus just being a little...collective, supporting each other.  We were kind of waiting for you, to be honest.  I knew you’d have to come back to deal with He Who Shall Not Be Named in the next week or two, even if Stellmore hadn’t reopened.”</p>
<p>Felicity grinned at the Cooper reference and then smiled wider in relief that she was ready to joke about her ex.  “OK, sure, let’s talk about it, but I think I’m in!”</p>
<p>The meeting at Big Belly Burger went well, and the four agreed to work together.  That next week, Stellmore was only employing a skeleton crew to set up new computer systems restored from backups, so she listened to Russian lessons all day as she mindlessly installed software on desktops and set up printers for the employees who’d return January second.  At night she and Alena sat in her kitchen working on their respective projects or met with Cisco and Curtis at a nearby coffee shop to hammer out the details of their joint business, which they’d started referring to as “Wisher,” or WSHR Inc., their last initials from oldest to youngest.</p>
<p>Felicity put in an application for an open apartment in Alena’s building and had an awkward phone conversation with Cooper where she arranged to come by and pack up half of their shared belongings the day after Christmas when the office would be closed.</p>
<p>She texted Oliver throughout the week, as well.  He sent her pictures of the cabins, now all painted the same soothing blue as hers.  Raisa was replacing some of the furnishings and had also found local artists to feature on a commission basis to augment the decor.  He also sent pictures of baking he’d done in preparation for Christmas on Sunday.  She teared up a little when he sent her a shot of Hamantaschen, captioned, “Not meant for Christmas, but I try.  Very tasty, I think kids will love it.”</p>
<p>Saturday was Christmas Eve, and Curtis and his boyfriend were having a party to celebrate the holiday as well as Stellmore’s reopening.  With many of their coworkers not having the money to travel home for the holidays, they were expecting quite the crowd.  Felicity planned on attending with Alena, because who could turn down free food, free booze, and the chance to see her friends, regardless of the nominal reason for the party?</p>
<p>That morning, she and Alena took it into their heads to attempt to bake cookies to bring to the party, despite neither of them having done much baking, in general, or Christmas cookies in particular.  After googling, they found a cute and easy-looking candy cane cookie recipe and trooped off to the grocery store to get what they’d need.</p>
<p>An hour later she carefully framed a shot of the black-around-the edges, misshapen pink and cream dough twists still lying on the cookie sheet.  She texted it to Oliver with the caption “безнадежный” - hopeless.  She sent the same picture to Curtis with a slightly different note:  “We’ll bring wine.”  She and Alena leaned against each other, giggling at the flour-covered mess that was her kitchen.</p>
<p>Oliver texted back, “Not hopeless.  Chill dough eight hours.  Cook three minutes fewer.”</p>
<p>“But the party is in two hours,” she texted back.</p>
<p>After a pause, he texted, “If you lived closer I could bake for you.”</p>
<p>Alena, reading the translation results over her shoulder, said, “Aww.  He knows the way to a girl’s heart is through her stomach.  Preferably via dessert.”</p>
<p>Felicity just rolled her eyes, used to Alena teasing about her ‘Russian Romeo,’ which had been going on since the first time Alena had seen his picture on Felicity’s phone.  Instead, she focused on the practicalities.  “So now we need wine to bring as our contribution.  Are we going to try and find somewhere to buy booze at noon on Christmas Eve, or are we going to raid our stash?  I still have a couple of bottles of the merlot from Silver Fork that I guess I’m willing to sacrifice.”</p>
<p>“What if we bring one bottle of your merlot and then I’ll contribute a Veronét? Then we’ve got a red and a white, something for everyone.”</p>
<p>“That’s fair.  Why don’t you shower first while I clean up the kitchen?  I heard Dave from marketing RSVPed yes, so you’ll want to come up with a cute outfit.”</p>
<p>Alena rolled her eyes and huffed dramatically as she headed for the bathroom, but Felicity knew she really was into that guy, and a little nervous about seeing him at the party.  </p>
<p>While she waited for her turn in the bathroom, Felicity started wiping up the flour that was all over the counters, kitchen table, and floor.  She scraped the remaining cookie dough from the mixing bowls into smaller bowls, covered them over, and put them in the fridge to chill.  Maybe she and Alena could try again tomorrow and have cookies to go with their Chinese.</p>
<p>Felicity showered after Alena finished in the bathroom, then wiggled into a dark gold dress she’d bought on sale a few years ago but had never had an occasion to wear before today.  As she curled her hair using the hallway mirror, she wished Oliver could see her outfit.  She could text a picture, but that would seem desperate, wouldn’t it?  Plus, she wanted to see the look on his face, that gleam in his eyes that he’d get sometimes when he looked at her.  She imagined how it might have been in an alternate reality, showing up at the party on his arm, introducing him to all her friends, flirting shamelessly before taking him home…</p>
<p>She shook herself out of her daydream and focused on her makeup, choosing a berry-colored lipstick and pale gold eyeshadow to pick up the color of her dress.  Alena came out of her room as Felicity was fastening the straps of her heels, wearing a short red dress with sequined trim at the neckline.  </p>
<p>“Lookin’ good,” they said to each other simultaneously, and then started giggling.  “Dave won’t know what hit him,” Felicity added, and Alena blushed as she detoured to the kitchen to grab their wine.  </p>
<p>They shrugged on their coats and made their way to Felicity’s car.  When she started the engine, the radio started up, automatically playing the CD in the CD player.  </p>
<p>“Is this Russian?” Alena asked.</p>
<p>“Yeah.  I asked Oliver if he had any musical suggestions.  It helps to learn a language, I think.”</p>
<p>Alena bounced a little in her seat.  “I like it.  It’s peppy—good driving music.  Do you understand what they’re saying?”</p>
<p>“A little.  Well, I googled and then translated it using my app.  The singer just said ‘My heart is bursting with love for the boy,’ or something like that.”</p>
<p>“Hmm.”  Felicity could practically hear the smirk in Alena’s voice.  “And you’re learning words that seem like they might be helpful in a future conversation with him.  Just maybe.”</p>
<p>Felicity responded by cranking up the volume, although she could still hear Alena snickering. </p>
<p>The lyrics to each song played through her mind as the stereo moved through her playlist.  In this one, ‘Every morning I wake up thinking about her.’  In the next, ‘Forget about the past.’  She wondered if he had picked the songs with the lyrics in mind.  Surely not, but...maybe she was just missing him more than usual.</p>
<p>With a growing sense of revelation, it occurred to her that Alena’s elaborate casualness while getting ready for the party reminded her of her own preparations for the dinner at Raisa’s, and that maybe what she felt was more than just attraction or flattery from the first hot guy she’d met post-Cooper.</p>
<p>By the time they reached Curtis’s neighborhood, Felicity was deep in thought.  She found a parking spot on the street a few doors down and followed Alena up the sidewalk to his house on autopilot.  A sign on the door said ‘Door’s Open!’ so they let themselves in.  </p>
<p>Curtis was standing in the hallway wearing a Santa hat and an ugly Christmas sweater.  He was talking to Alena’s crush Dave and another guy she thought might also be in market research, but broke off from the conversation to greet them.</p>
<p>“We brought wine as promised,” Felicity said, holding out the repurposed red gift bag toward him.  “Uh, Alena, do you think—”  She broke off what she was about to say, momentarily second-guessing her plans.</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“Do you think you could find your own way home?” Felicity blurted out.  She took a few steps backward toward the door.  “I think I have somewhere I need to be.”</p>
<p>Alena beamed.  “Go for it.  Don’t worry about me!”</p>
<p>Felicity nodded once and then whirled around, fishing her keys back out of the pocket of her coat as she left the party to head back to her car.  Apparently, she was taking a Christmas Eve road trip.</p>
<p> </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A sign for the Edgewater exit appeared as the sun was setting.  Felicity got a little turned around trying to get to Raisa’s brownstone from a different angle and ended up having to drive to the cabins and then back to Little Rostov so that she could follow a familiar route.  When she arrived at Raisa’s home, she was able to park directly in front of the brownstone.  </p><p>Marina answered when she rang the doorbell, with the rest of the family gathered behind as they struggled into their coats.  “Felicity!  You’re back!”</p><p>“Yes, I- I need to talk to Oliver.  Is he here?”  She hoped she didn’t sound as desperate as she felt.</p><p>“He’s helping with food preparation at St. Barbara’s—it’s a big fundraiser, Christmas Eve dinner, dancing and music, and then we go to midnight mass.  Russians come from all the nearby towns to celebrate and eat traditional food.”</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>“We’re walking to the church so that we don’t have to worry about parking.”</p><p>“And so that we can drink all the vodka we want,” Daniel added, and all the adults laughed.</p><p>“Walk with us,” Raisa offered as she swept down the steps to lead the family group.  When Felicity fell into step beside her, she asked, “So what do you want with our Oliver?  Did you leave behind something in your cabin?  He didn’t say anything to me about this.”</p><p>“No, I-”  Felicity stuffed her hands in the pockets of her coat so that she could fiddle with her keys.  “I guess I came to ask him out on a date.”</p><p>Marina and Daniel cheered.  “Called it!” Marina said.</p><p>Sophia and Josh skipped up to her.  “Are you and cousin Oliver going to get married?” Sophia asked.</p><p>Felicity snorted.  “It’s a little early to say.  I just want to go out to dinner with him.  Or to a movie.  Or something.”</p><p>Josh made a disgusted sound.  “You want to kiss him, don’t you?  Adults are so gross.”</p><p>Up ahead, another family grouping was letting themselves out of the next brownstone in the row.  They joined up with Raisa’s group, and the older woman leading their family said in Russian, “Good evening, Raisa.  And who’s this?”</p><p>“My name is Felicity,” she said in Russian.</p><p>Josh said something, and Marina corrected him—Felicity didn’t follow all of it, but she heard ‘Oliver’ and what she was pretty sure was Russian for ‘kiss.’  The kids in the new group erupted into giggles at that and ran off with the Sophia and Josh, ahead of the adults.</p><p>The woman looked her over.  “Pretty girl,” Felicity thought she said.  “Russian?”</p><p>Felicity shook her head.</p><p>They’d reached the corner and turned right.  Up ahead, the kids were talking to yet another group of people waiting on the sidewalk, including...she squinted.  “Is that Tommy and Roy?”</p><p>When her group reached them, Roy called out, “Are you and Oliver having a baby?”</p><p>Felicity groaned and pulled ahead to nip that rumor in the bud.  “No, we’re not having a baby,” she said.  “The kids are just a little confused.”</p><p>A guy from their group said, “You marry Oliver so he gets green card?”</p><p>“Oh my god, no.  I- we’re not getting <em>married</em>.”</p><p>Sophia said, “But if you get married, I can be a flower girl and wear a sparkly pink dress with a big poofy skirt.  I’d do the flowers real good.  Look, I’ll show you.”  She spun around and picked up handfuls of leaves from below the tree near where they were standing, and proceeded to let them flutter artistically to the ground as she paraded in front of the group.</p><p>“She is cute,” Felicity mused.</p><p>Tommy said, “Well, there you go.  You have to get married, then, don’t you?”</p><p>She shook her head and laughed.</p><p>“Sophia, she’s not saying she <em>won’t </em>get married,” Tommy called out, and she and the other little girls cheered.</p><p>“I think her dress should be yellow!” one of them said.</p><p>“No, blue!”</p><p>Felicity listened to the high-pitched argument about the best color for fancy dresses as they approached the end of the block.  Another block up ahead, she could see an imposing, ornate church.  “Is that where we’re going?” she asked Tommy.</p><p>“Yep.  But to the parish hall behind the church.  There’s a big room where we’ll eat, and they run heaters in the courtyard for dancing.  It’s a nice tradition.  Family-friendly,”</p><p>“I’m glad we’re almost there.  These shoes were <em>not </em>made for walking.”</p><p>“Fancy,” Roy said from her other side.  “Were you planning on going directly to this date you have planned?”</p><p>“I love that you think I actually had a plan.  I just missed him, so I left the party I was at and drove here.”</p><p>“Aww,” someone said from the crowd behind her.</p><p>Someone else said, “So is not just a shotgun marriage?” before being hushed.</p><p>“I may take the shotgun to myself,” Felicity muttered.  “I wasn’t planning on having this...audience.”</p><p>“Hey, everybody just likes Oliver and hopes he’s happy,” Tommy said.</p><p>Roy added, “And not trapped into marriage by some American hussy.”</p><p>“Am I trapping him with this fictional baby or am I helping him get a green card?  I’m confused.”</p><p>Tommy mused, “Maybe this is an arrangement of convenience—he gets to stay in America and you get the child you so desperately want.  With Oliver’s impeccable genetics contributed, of course.”</p><p>“Oh, of course.  Who wouldn’t agree to that?”</p><p>They continued to joke as they made their way to the church and then through the parking lot to the parish hall.  Felicity’s steps slowed as they approached the open doors.  </p><p>“Don’t chicken out now,” Tommy murmured into her ear so that the crowd behind her wouldn’t hear.  </p><p>Sophia led a pack of children running into the hall, calling, “Cousin Oliver!  Cousin Oliver!”</p><p>Felicity sped up, outpacing Tommy, Roy, and Oliver’s family.  In the entry space before the banquet area, two teens sat before a folding table to collect payment and issue tickets, and a third was managing a coat check rack.  Roy said, “Give us your coat, and we’ll pay for your ticket so you can get in there.”</p><p>“Thanks!”  She flashed him a smile as she shrugged out of her coat, handed it to him, and was off before she could register or respond to the whistles and comments when her party dress was revealed.  She marched through the doorway to the banquet hall and paused to get her bearings, noticing conversations dropping off near her as she made a beeline for the buffet tables, following the high-pitched laughter of children.</p><p>And there he was, ladling chili from a slow cooker into a bowl for an elderly woman while paying half-hearted attention to the kids who were all speaking at once.</p><p>She heard Josh mention her name, and Oliver looked up, scanning the room until his eyes fell on her.</p><p>Their eyes locked, and then the world just...stopped.  He seemed stunned to see her, if his quick exhalation of breath was anything to go by.  His eyes widened as he took her in, and Felicity was glad she’d suffered through the car ride in the tight lace dress and heels.</p><p>“Dobryy vecher, Oliver,” she said when she was within earshot.</p><p>“Dobryy vecher, Felicity,” he replied.</p><p>“Oliver—”  The crowd in the room hushed.</p><p>With a jumble of song lyrics and phrases she’d guiltily translated running through her mind, and being cognizant of the people who’d gathered behind her, she continued in halting Russian, “I came here today…to ask you…out on a date with me, to eat, or dance, or go for a walk.” </p><p>Based on the occasional snicker from the crowd and flickers of confusion on Oliver’s face she could tell she wasn’t exactly nailing the Russian, but she was committed at this point so she pushed forward.  “I know it is sudden, and it is not practical to date someone who lives so far away, but I was missing you in Starling City, and I wanted to check if you were missing me, too…”</p><p>She stopped, partly out of embarrassment, partly because the smile that had slowly stolen over his face was giving her hope.</p><p>Sophia shouted something in Russian that Felicity thought might be, “Say yes so I can be a flower girl!”</p><p>“Da!” Oliver said, and the whole room cheered.  Tommy and Marina hugged her while Oliver walked around the buffet tables, untying his apron as he went.   When he reached her, he continued in English, “Yes is being my answer.  And I am researching, is school for cooking, in Starling City.  I cook and stay close.  I am missing you also, Felicity.”</p><p>He reached out and took her hands in his.  He leaned in like he might kiss her, but Raisa pushed between them to hug Felicity and kiss her on both cheeks.  She passed Felicity to another older woman, and then she was being hugged by what seemed like half the town’s population.  </p><p>Finally, she felt someone tugging her away from one of Raisa’s contemporaries only to find herself in Oliver’s arms again.  “Dance?”  She nodded, and he led her through the still-crowded room and out into a courtyard lit with multicolored Christmas lights.  Musicians were playing a lively version of something she vaguely recognized as a Christmas carol and a dozen couples of all ages were dancing.</p><p>The song ended as they stood at the edge of the crowd, and the band switched to something slower.  Oliver swept her into his arms and into an opening between the dancers.  “Your Russian is better,” he said as they began swaying to the rhythm of what she thought might be a Kelly Clarkson Christmas song, translated to Russian.</p><p>“And your English,” she said in Russian, because that seemed fair.  She stepped closer and slid her hands up his chest to rest on his shoulders.  “You’re really applying to culinary school?”</p><p>“Humboldt College.  Has good…reputatsiyu.”  He slipped back into Russian when he didn’t know the word in English.  “People say good things.  I want to—”  He looked down at her intently.  “You are very smart, Felicity.  I want to make you proud.  I want to…compete?  No, ah, measure up?”</p><p>“You don’t have to.  I-  I like <em>you</em>.  You have a good heart.”  She tapped his chest.  “I want you to be happy.”</p><p>His eyes glinted mischievously.  “You can make me happy this moment,” he murmured as he angled his lips toward hers. </p><p>She went up on her toes to meet him, lips brushing against his, and it was even better than she’d dreamed.  The slight scrape of his stubble made a delicious counterpoint to the softness of his lips.  A splayed hand across her back pulled her in even more closely, and she was hyperconscious of the size of his hands resting against her, fingers sliding into the deep vee on the back of the dress.  She shivered, but she wasn’t cold, just overloaded by what she was feeling.</p><p>The sound of clapping startled her enough to fall back on her heels, pulling her lips a few inches away from Oliver’s.  They both started laughing at the antics of the people around them, who were stomping their feet and whistling.</p><p>“Want…” he angled his head toward the walkway that would lead back out of the building.</p><p>“Yeah.  Let’s go,” Felicity said breathlessly.  As they pushed through the crowd, the band switched to a polka-fied version of the wedding march, making them laugh again.</p><p>As she passed Tommy, who’d been dancing with a redhead, she said, “Tell the band they can play at our wedding, if we make it that far.”</p><p>He shouted what she thought was an accurate translation in the direction of the band—she caught the word ‘play’ but didn’t know the word for wedding—and the crowd cheered again.</p><p>And Oliver looked the same way she felt:  hopeful.</p>
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